Thanks for all the feedback! See below for a status update, and take a
quick look at the revised page:
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mflatt/tmp/r/www/
I'm disappointed that we're getting so few 7-line program suggestions.
Please suggest more.
The main guideline for a good example is that it should demonstrate
something that a programmer already wants to do. While I appreciate
Guillaume's suggestion, I don't think that "use functional hash tables"
is on many wish lists. In contrast, I think of "traverse a directory
tree", "create a web server", "create a GUI", and "produce documents"
as more concrete tasks that are easier for programmers to appreciate.
That's just a guideline, and the "write static types" and "handle
infinite lists" examples are a bit indirect by that standard --- but
they're also language details that certain communities latch onto,
which is why think those work anyway.
In any case, we need more good examples, and we especially need easy
examples like the first few.
----------------------------------------
Things fixed:
* The bad intro text at the top left has been removed.
* The Javascript bug that caused clicking the arrows to scroll
the page is now fixed.
* The code is colorized and hyperlinked.
* The initial example is likely to be simpler, since only the first
three are candidates to the initial example. (The examples are
always in the same order; only the starting position changes.)
* The "?" panel explains the current example.
* "Grow your Mind" => "Grow your Skills"
Things not yet fixed:
* We don't yet have good intro text for the top left.
* The links still mostly go to documentation. (Unfortunately, I don't
see that changing before the release.)
* Some text changes are still needed on pages other the front page.
The were also some style suggestions that we'll consider further,
including an auto-advance for the slideshow.